Pumpkin patches are a common sight along the roads of Pennsylvania’s Amish country in fall. // Photograph by Joelle Morris, My Shot
From the October 2010 issue of National Geographic Traveler and the National Geographic book Drives of a Lifetime
Road fare doesn’t have to be from a chain restaurant. Here are routes where you can savor local produce.
Cheese, Vermont
To enjoy artisanal cheeses year-round, follow U.S. 7, within the “Vermont Cheese Trail,” north from Bennington, through to Middlebury (with seven cheesemakers in the vicinity), then to Burlington. Aside from the famously aged Vermont cheddar, choices now include feta, goat cheese, and ewe’s milk cheese. Planning: The Vermont Cheesemaker’s Festival is held every July. www.vtcheese.com
Blueberries, Rhode Island
As you journey along R.I. 77 from historic Tiverton Four Corners to Sakonnet Point, watch as the landscape changes from stone-fenced pastures and woodlands to vineyards. After a wine tasting at Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton, enjoy the cooling breezes at Sakonnet Point, then return to Tiverton for blueberry ice cream at Gray’s Ice Cream Shop. Planning: Visit in August when the produce at Rhode Island roadside stalls runs from blueberries to sweet corn. www.gonewport.com
Pumpkins and Chocolate, Pennsylvania
From Philadelphia, head west on U.S. 30 through Amish farm country to Lancaster, where the Landis Valley Museum hosts “Harvest Days with the Pumpkin Patch” in October. The same weekend (this year on October 9), a “Chocolate Walk” in nearby Lititz invites you to visit over 20 chocolate-tasting sites. Take the slow lane on an Amish buggy ride in Bird-in-Hand or Ronks, down roads lined with amber autumn color. Planning: For all things chocolate, and a theme park, spa, and zoo visit Hershey, 25 miles northwest of Lititz. www.padutchcountry.com
Peaches, Georgia
Start a tour of the Peach State at Macon and head south to the town of Byron. In June’s warmth, peaches are at their peak, weighing down the farm stalls and starring at the Fort Valley Georgia Peach Festival. This is a chance to see—and taste—the world’s largest (11 feet wide) peach cobbler. It’s so big that its sweet biscuit topping has to be stirred with canoe paddles. Planning: Ga. 49 south of Byron is known as Peach Parkway. www.gapeachfestival.com
Cherries, Michigan
Throughout Michigan, May is the time for cherry blossoms. In mid-July, just as the cherries ripen and are ready for picking, Traverse City hosts the National Cherry Festival, first held in 1926. Here cherries are used in everything from vodka to cheesecake. Take Rte. 22 outlining the Leelanau Peninsula—stopping to sample cherry wine en route—through orchards and vineyards to Glen Arbor, where cherry-themed goodies can be found at the Cherry Republic Shop. Planning: You will need to buy tickets in advance for many events during the popular National Cherry Festival. www.absolutemichigan.com
A killed 16-foot Burmese python in the Everglades was found with an adult deer in its belly this past fall. Photograph from South Florida Water Management District via AP
Christine Dell’Amore
National Geographic News
Published January 30, 2012
From rabbits to deer to even bobcats, invasive Burmese pythons appear to be eating through the Everglades’ supply of mammals, new research shows.
Since the giant constrictors took hold in Florida in 2000, many previously common mammals have plummeted in number—and some, such as cottontail rabbits, may be totally gone from some areas.
Scientists already knew from dissecting the 20-foot (6-meter) snakes that they prey on a wide range of species within Everglades National Park. (See a picture of a Burmese python that exploded eating an American alligator in the Everglades.)
But this is “the first study to show that pythons are having impacts on prey populations—and unfortunately those impacts appear to be pretty dramatic,” said study leader Michael Dorcas, a herpetologist at Davidson College in North Carolina.
“We started the study after we realized, Man, we’re not seeing a lot of these animals around anymore,” Dorcas said.
But “when we did the calculations, we were pretty astonished.”
Burmese Pythons Causing “Severe Declines”?
For the study, Dorcas and colleagues conducted nighttime surveys of live and dead animals on roads between 2003 and 2011. Such numbers provide estimates of how many animals of a certain species are present in a given area.
The scientists compared these data with similar surveys conducted in 1996 and 1997.
Before 2000 it was common to see mammals such as rabbits, red foxes, gray foxes, Virginia opossums, raccoons, and white-tailed deer on roadways after dark, the team says.
But the 2003 to 2011 surveys—which covered a total of nearly 35,400 miles (57,000) kilometers of road—revealed “severe declines” in mammal sightings, according to the study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Raccoon observations dropped by 99.3 percent, opossum by 98.9 percent, and bobcat by 87.5 percent. The scientists saw no rabbits or foxes at all during their surveys.
Also worrisome is what could be happening to species that were already rare—and thus more difficult to research, Dorcas noted.
For instance, it’s unknown whether the snakes are putting the squeeze on the Florida panther, a subspecies of cougar deemed endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But “it’s not unreasonable to assume that a really large python could consume a Florida panther,” he said—the snakes are known to eat leopards in Southeast Asia.
Impact of Everglades Mammal Decline Unknown
It’s difficult to predict how the decline in mammal populations will affect the Everglades, Dorcas said.
But some species may even benefit from the python’s big appetite, he said. For example, turtle numbers are often kept down by raccoons, which eat the reptiles’ eggs. Without as many raccoons, “we may be knee-deep in turtles in 20 years,” he quipped.
Whit Gibbons is a professor emeritus of ecology and head of outreach for the Savannah River Ecology Lab at the University of Georgia.
“My bet is that some of the mammals that have been affected will partially recover by managing to adapt or adjust,” said Gibbons, who wasn’t involved with the study.
“It’s unlikely,” he added, “that raccoons are going to go extinct in Florida.”
But as long as pythons are there, the mammals won’t bounce back to their former levels, he said.
Meanwhile, some groups are mounting efforts to stem the spread of the Burmese python. The Nature Conservancy’s “Python Patrol,” for example, works to prevent the reptile from moving into the Florida Keys.
And on January 17 the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a new law banning importation and interstate transport of four species of invasive snakes, including the Burmese python.
“We have taken strong action to battle the spread of the Burmese python and other nonnative species that threaten the Everglades and other areas across the United States,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement.
“There’s no single solution to this conservation challenge, but banning the importation and interstate transport of these invasive snakes is a critical step.”
Pythons’ Invasion an Opportunity?
The University of Georgia’s Gibbons sees the snakes’ invasion as a chance for scientists to track what happens to the Everglades.
Though the ecosystem “may not collapse, it will likely change,” he said. “That change would be very worthwhile to monitor from a scientific standpoint.
“Maybe next time we could prevent changes we don’t want to happen.”
